Short Track Team Celebrates Historic Win at European Championships

The Hungarian team finished third with one gold and two silver medals at the European Short Track Speed Skating Championships in Dresden, Germany, over the weekend.

Petra Jászapáti scored two individual medals for the team with outstanding overall results. She started Saturday with a silver medal in the 1,000m race. Two years ago, the 26-year-old won the first individual European Championship medal of her career in this event, finishing third.

In Saturday’s final, the only athlete Jászapáti failed to beat was Italy’s Arianna Fontana, one of the sport’s greatest stars.

Fontana claimed the 23rd European gold medal of her career, the fourth at this distance.

Silver medalist Petra Jászapáti, gold medalist Arianna Fontana and bronze medalist Elisa Confortola (L-R). Photo: MTI/Koszticsák Szilárd

The day did not end with the individual medal: the women’s relay team (Petra Jászapáti, Zsófia Kónya, Luca Sára Bácskai, Maja Somodi) also won silver in the 3,000m.

The women’s relay team had previously won a medal two years ago, when they also finished as silver medalists.

Photo: MTI/Koszticsák Szilárd

Sára Luca Bácskai, Zsófia Kónya, Petra Jászapáti, Rebeka Sziliczei-Német and Maja Somodi (L-R) Photo: MTI/Koszticsák Szilárd

On Sunday, Petra Jászapáti won the gold medal in the 500m, a historic success in the Hungarian short track: she won the first Hungarian individual continental title among women.

Previously, only the women’s relay team had triumphed in 2009.

Photo: MTI/Koszticsák Szilárd

After her victory, the athlete said she was not only happy about the gold medal, but also about her performance throughout the day. “It was a very tough day, I did a race every half hour, five races in total. Two in the 1,500m, then three in the 500m. I went from race to race, always looking for the next one. It paid off in the end,” Jászapáti told MTI.

The fresh European champion said it was a great honor to be named alongside Erika Huszár, Bernadett Heidum, Andrea Keszler and Rózsa Darázs, the Hungarian relay team that won the 2009 European Championships.

Photo: MTI/Koszticsák Szilárd

Nicky Gooch, head coach of the women’s national team, said

this is not the end of the line or the top of the mountain, for us the Olympics next year is in our sights from the start.”

The British coach, who leads the women’s team from 2022, said, “it is important that there is still room for improvement; she still has the ability and the capacity to make progress.” “She is still skating better times in training than in competitions. The arena, the crowd, the stakes can freeze the athletes, but we are constantly working on getting her to do her best in competitions,” he explained.

The season continues with two European World Cup events in February, before concluding with the World Championships in Beijing, China, in March.

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Via MTI, Featured image: MTI/Koszticsák Szilárd